Written on your skin
by Dawn's Darkness
Summary: He was trying to find his place in the world and she was just following hers. Soulmate AU Cap x OC


Early on a Tuesday morning, a very flustered brunette was pushing her way through the packed streets of Manhattan, arms full of various folders and phone to her ear. "Yes Mr. Wallace, I've just picked up the reports from the analyst and I'm on my way back to the office now," she spoke as she manoeuvred around her fellow pedestrians at a speed that would have made her high school gym coach proud.

"Excellent Evelyn, I can always count on you" Her bossed praised through the phone, "and while I'm counting on you, a last-minute meeting has come up and I need to stay back..."

"I can run Madeline to her dance lessons this afternoon, Mr Wallace, you don't even need to ask" she interrupted, as she waited on the sidewalk watching for a break in the traffic, so she could cross the street.

"You're a gem, Evelyn. Last week she tried to sass her teacher about her form, can you apologise on my behalf please? I really don't want to have to try and find another studio."

Evelyn rolled her eyes at the seven-year old's antics before quickly fumbling for her pen in her pocket, pulling the cap off in her mouth and without thinking quickly scribbled 'apologise for sass' on the back of her left hand. "Not a problem Mr Wallace, she will be there, and her teacher will get the best apology available".

"Again Evelyn, I can always count on you." Replied Mr Wallace before disconnecting the call.

Evelyn pocketed her phone, crossed the street and restarted the dash to her office building, completely oblivious to the ripple effect the notes on the back of her hand was about to cause.

* * *

In a small gym in the back streets of Brooklyn, the soldier was running drills against a third boxing bag for the day. Sweat poured off his forehead as he continued to jab the bag with a strict tempo before completing a right-handed hook that sent the bag flying from the hook to join its predecessors on the gym floor. Steve drew in heavy breaths as he wiped his brow and moved to the bench and started unwrapping his left hand, flexing his fingers as he did so, his knuckles stiff from being tightly wrapped. He grabbed his water bottled from his duffel bag, taking a mouthful and pouring some of it over his head to help cool down before moving to unwrap his right hand. He unwound the bandage and his heart jolted in his chest and mouth became dry, indifferent to water he had just drank. There on his right hand in a rushed script were 16 characters he didn't know he had been waiting to see.

He quickly shoved his belongings in his bag and waived to the gym owner as he made his way out the door and to his bike. Swinging his leg over, he sat in its saddle and gripped the handle bars, again glancing at his hand before starting his bike and taking off down the street. On the back of Steven Rogers hand was proof that his soulmate was alive, on the back of his hand was 'apologise for sass'.

* * *

Weeks passed, and Steve continued his ritual of going to the little gym in Brooklyn, before heading home to catch up on what he missed. He found that since coming out from the ice, beating himself up in the gym was the only remotely familiar thing he had found. Society had changed to much, and he had left too much behind. His heart clenched, as memories of the past flashed through his mind, he started hitting a boxing bag that hung next to the boxing ring, each swing trying to fight off and repress his memories. He threw upper cut after upper cut, trying to drown out the images of the past, it was 70 years ago but to him it had only been a few months. Steve's rage continued to build as with every hit of the bag, until finally the bag gave way and split, flying across the floor, sand spilling out polished wood. His chest heaved and sweat fell from his forehead as he set his face and turned to pick up another bag, effortlessly lifting it onto the hook. He moved his hands into the defensive position before resuming his punches as he heard footsteps approach.

"Trouble sleeping?"

Steve momentarily stopped his assault on the new bag, before starting up once more "I've slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill."

"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world."

Steve abandoned punching the bag, eyeing Fury up and down, walking over to the bench and unravelling the tape off his hands as he sat down, "I went under the world was at war, I wake up and they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."

"We've made some mistakes along the way. Some very recently."

"You here with a mission, sir?"

"I am"

"Trying to get me back into the world?"

"Trying to save it." Fury handed Steve the open file in his hands, Steve's brows furrowed as he studied a picture of the cube warily. He planted himself down on the bench, turning the picture over and looked back up to Fury.

"Hydra's secret weapon"

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs."

Shutting the file and handing it back to the eye patch wearing man, "Who took it from you?" Steve questioned.

"He's called Loki. He's not from around here. There's a whole lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."

"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me."

"Ten bucks says you're wrong. There's a debriefing package waiting for you at your apartment." Fury motioned to the scribble on Steve's hand, "After this is done, you might also want to get that checked out." He said knowingly.

Steve just slightly shook his head as he moved to pick up a punching back, flipping it up onto his shoulder, the other hand carrying his bag.

"Is there anything else about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?" Fury called out after the soldier.

Not stopping or turning around, "You should have left it in the ocean." Steve responded.

* * *

Chaos, that was the only word to describe what was happening on the streets of Manhattan now. Evelyn had been on her way to the secondary office across the city when the sky opened, and the creatures started flooding through and firing their weapons at the people on the streets. She had taken shelter in a café with several others, a few with cuts and bruises starting to form from the shrapnel and debris from the attack outside. Evelyn tried to regain control of her breathing for a moment before moving to press herself against the window front to see out to the street.

An alien flew past on its scooter like vehicle, screeching as it did. Evelyn quickly pulled away from the window and slide to the floor, afraid to be seen and draw attention to the coffee house. She pressed her hand over her heart, almost willing it to slow its erratic beats against her ribs. She took three deep breaths before a thought crossed her mind. Like lightning she bolted from the floor to behind the counter, frantically looking around the register before she found her desired object. With her mouth she popped the cap off the end and hastily scribbled two words on her hand, praying they would reach her soulmate.

* * *

Not too far from the Stark Tower, Steve was trying his best to fight off the Chitauri from the remaining civilians as they made their way to safer ground. Even with the super soldier serum flowing through his blood, he was starting to fatigue from the ongoing onslaught of alien soldiers. Taking a few seconds too long to catch his breath, he was caught off guard by an attack that shot his hand, singing the uniform off his skin. Pain shot up his arm and his face clenched in pain. He quickly recovered before taking the alien down with two hard hits with his shield. He brought his hand to inspect the damage, relieved to see that the suit had taken the brunt of the attack. His heart stuttered in his chest and his energy seemingly reinvigorated as he read the two words on his hand, 'Be Safe."

In that moment he swore to himself if he survived the alien invasion that he would finally pick up a pen and write something back, and that he would start trying to decipher the notes appearing on his arm to find his soul mate. He didn't have long to dwell though as a second Chitauri attacked him, dragging his attention back to the fray.

* * *

Weeks passed and before Steve had a chance to realise two months had passed since the attack on New York, he still hadn't forgot the promise he made to himself, however he hadn't really had a chance to think about taking an action. He had been busy with SHIELD setting up a personal team and running missions alongside Natasha. He had been walking back into the SHIELD office when he saw more rushed script appear running up his forearm. Natasha, who had been walking beside him, raise one of her eyebrows.

"How long has this been going on?" She asked in her usual sultry tone.

"Pretty much since I came out of the ice, I had thought that I left any chance at a soul mate back in the 40's, but these random messages appear nearly every day." Steve replied, eying the words.

"And have you responded?"

Steve stopped then, and Natasha stopped with him, she eyed him, and he looked down to the floor before sighing, "I keep telling myself I will, but I've been busy and when I do have the chance… "he trailed off.

Natasha remained silent with a small smirk on her lips, Steve looked up at her with an embarrassed look colouring his face, "when I do get the chance I'm not sure what to write."

A full smile now broke on the assassins face and she raised her hand to grip Steve upper arm, giving a little squeeze.

"You're an artist, draw her something." And the red head turned and walked away leaving the soldier to think on it.

* * *

Evelyn all but crashed into her apartment that evening dumping her arm full of bags and jacket on the floor before kicking her pumps off and flopping herself face down on the lounge next to her roommate, who watched with an amused smile.

"Good evening to you too Evelyn, busy day at the office?" Her roommate, Claire, asked eyeing the frazzled brunette.

A muffled reply was returned, and a small sympathetic smile grew on Claire's face, "C'mon now don't be like that, you love your job and you love your boss, it couldn't have been that bad?"

Evelyn quickly sat up and re-positioned herself so that her head was now resting on Claire's shoulder as she grabbed her hand and started playing with her friends fingers, "It wasn't that bad, work was fine but I had to take Madeline to a new dance studio across the city, where we waited an extra 25 minutes for the dance teacher to show up only for Madeline to turn around and reprimand her for her tardiness and lack of grace when it came to ballet."

"You're kidding?" Claire exclaimed, unable to control the smile that broke on her face as she threaded her fingers through Evelyn's to hold her hand comfortingly.

"No, I am not, I love that child, but I have never met a more punctual and proper little lady in my life, I don't know how I'm going to explain to her father that he's going to have to find yet another new studio for her." Evelyn sighed.

When Claire failed to reply, Evelyn lifted her head to look at her roommate whose eyes were solely focus on their joint hands with a look of somewhat horror on her face, "Claire what is it?" Evelyn quickly asked, not sure of what had caused this reaction out of her friend.

Claire's response was to lift their hands and shove them in Evelyn's face. Evelyn not sure what was going on looked at their hands before focussing on the scribbled message regarding Madeline's dance lessons and the flowers that's appeared to be blooming next to it. Evelyn's heart jolted in her chest as she watched the drawing fade into existence, each line clear and precise. She looked back up at her roommate, who's face read just as much shock as she felt. Their eyes locked for a brief second as a smile broke on Evelyn's face before she clutched her arm to herself and tore through the apartment into her bedroom, crawling onto her bed to watch the miracle appearing on her arm. Her heart rate continued to speed up as she drank in each detail of the flowers, admiring the intricacy of them.

* * *

Steve sat in his SHIELD issued apartment, marker in hand, drawing random shapes on his arm. It was oddly therapeutic for the ink to glide across his skin in his on the spot designs, drawing was one of the only familiar things the soldier had in the 21st century and he didn't know why he hadn't thought of doing this before. As he capped the black marker and laid it on the table, he took a moment to look over his arms, hoping that his soulmate enjoyed his doodles as much as he did. He promised that every spare chance he would draw for her, letting her know he was there and thing of her.

* * *

Evelyn laid in bed watching the intricate patterns on her forearm appear. Twenty-four years she had lived before the designs began appearing and now they were almost a weekly occurrence, starting later at night. She let her fingers gingerly glide over the swirls as they faded into existence on her arms, a small smile growing on her pink lips and a warmth spreading in her chest. The drawings had started just a few months ago, up until then Evelyn had decided to accept the fact that either her soulmate didn't exist, or they were just ignoring the soulmate connection. The second time it happened she had woken up to a collage of cartoon's up her right arm a few days after the flowers had appeared. Evelyn's breathing had stopped in that moment and heart swelled as she drank in each detail of the characters admiring the intricacy of them, pleased to know the first time wasn't a fluke. Whomever her soulmate was they were immensely talented, and each time the drawings appeared it was a new landscape, character or just doodles.

The doodles were her favourite, she liked to pretend that the random lines and curves were a message directly to her to let her know that her soulmate was thinking about her and just wanted to remind her that they were there. But as much as Evelyn enjoyed her soulmates drawings she could never bring herself to reciprocate, her drawing skills were a bit lack lustre, so doing her own doodles were out of the question. She didn't want to disappoint her artist with her lack of skills. One of the downfalls of the soul bond that direct messages didn't seem to translate to the other person, so writing a message was not an option either, she just hoped that her random notes she scribbled on herself were enough to let them know she was out there. She continued to watch the designs appear as she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of finally meeting her artist.

* * *

More months had passed, and Steve kept up the drawings at every chance he got. He had also taken to trying to decode the notes his soulmate had written for herself. Every message was like a puzzle he tried and failed to piece together, and each day that he failed he grew more desperate and more determined to track her down. He had recently moved into Stark tower, or Avengers Tower as it was now called, after the collapse of SHIELD in DC. The Avengers had reassembled to try to track down Loki's sceptre, Thor had even returned to Earth and was also living in the tower. Now Natasha, Tony and Bruce were gathering intel and trying to scan for the sceptre which meant Steve had more free time until they found something.

Steve was sitting in the living area, looking at his arm. His soul mate had quite the day apparently as his forearm was covered in messy scribble. Steve was unable to make out all the notes but the ones he could provide some insight into his soulmate's life. He had determined that she had to be a personal assistant of some sorts, as majority of what she wrote tended to be a to do list. Steve didn't hear Tony until the billionaire was right behind him, hearing the footsteps he hastily pulled the sleeve of his shirt down to cover the soul marks, but Tony had already seen them.

"Capsicle, are they what I think they are?" He enquired in his usual arrogant tone. "Have you tracked her down?"

"No, and I'm not going to." Steve lied as he stood from the sofa and faced the Stark, "aren't you supposed to be finding the sceptre?" He questioned back.

Tony just rolled his eyes before moving to the liquor cabinet and pouring himself a drink, "Bruce and I need some cool down time, apparently." He answered nonchalantly, moving to rest on the bar, looking at the soldier.

Steve nodded and mumbled quickly he was headed for a run before leaving the billionaire alone. Tony took a sip of the liquor, swishing it in his mouth, thinking.

"JARVIS?" He called out.

"Yes sir?" Replied the British robotic voice.

"Can you pull up the footage from five minutes ago, scan Caps arm and run the handwriting against the database?"

"Do you think it's wise sir to be meddling in Captain Rogers' affairs?" JARVIS asked.

"Of course, now do it." Tony said sternly, downing the rest of his drink.

"Yes sir" was the reply as Tony head back down to the lab to continue his work.

A few hours later in the lab JARVIS called Tony's attention.

"Sir I have the results of the scan and have found a 97% match."

"Show me" Tony replied slipping away the previous information on his stark pad to make room for the data.

"The handwriting appears to be consistent with an Evelyn Myers",JARVIS explained as he pulled up her image for Tony, "she is 24, living in West Village and is currently employed by Brendon Wallace."

Tony shoved a small handful of peanuts in his mouth, dusted the excess salt off his hands before picking up the pad to take a better look at the girl. "JARVIS, call Wallace and tell him I am actually interested in moving forward with his clean-up crew initiative, ask him to send his PA over with the contracts again, let's say today 3pm"

"Done sir."

Tony sat down in his chair swivelling in slightly, pad still in hand and still analysing the picture, "great..." he muttered, taking another handful nut and popping them into his mouth.

"Well Captain, today is your lucky day."

* * *

"Yes Mr Wallace, I can pick up contracts from the lawyers and have it at Avengers tower by 2pm, not a problem." Evelyn said scribbling the notes on her hand as she walked down the street, coffee in one hand, phone in the other.

"3pm" Mr Wallace corrected on the other end of the phone, "this is a huge opportunity Evelyn so best smiles while you are there, if they have any questions,"

"I will take notes, give them to the lawyers and then contact them with the answers before this afternoon." Evelyn cut it.

"you truly are best Evie." He beamed through the phone and then hung up.

Evelyn was left with a smile on her face from her boss's praise and she quickly altered the time on her hand to 3pm before hailing a cab, jumping in and taking off down the street.

* * *

Steve's heart stopped dead in his chest, as he saw his soul mates next task for the day appear on his arm. She would be in the same building as himself within the next 2 hours, butterflies swelled in his stomach at the thought. A hopeful smile bloomed on the soldiers face as anticipation filled him. Mindset, he marched in the direction of his room within Avengers Tower, ready to devise a plan to meet his soulmate.

* * *

Evelyn had made in to the towers foyer with only minutes to spare before her scheduled meeting. The street outside was a little chaotic, with Avengers fan crowding the doors as word had spread that Captain America was currently in the building, and every fan boy and girl had made their way to Manhattan hoping to see their favourite WW2 soldier.

"Excuse me," She started as she walked up to one of the reception desks, "My name is Evelyn Myers, from Wallace consulting, I have an appointment at 3pm." She smiled.

"I'm sorry Miss Myers, our appointment policy states that you are required to be here 15 minutes beforehand to go through the necessary security checks. Unfortunately, we had to move on the next appointment and can no longer fit you in this afternoon." The woman behind the desk robotically smiled while typing on hr keypad, "The next available opening we have in in fortnights time at 10:30am, would you like me to reserve it for you?"

* * *

Steve exited the elevator into the foyer of the tower and immediately his eyes began scanning the bustling people around him. A commotion at one of the front desks grabbed his attention, a small brunette was desperately pleading with the receptionist.

* * *

"I apologise for not being here 15 minutes early for the security check, but I wasn't aware of the policy. Please let me go in, my boss has been trying to get this contract with Stark Industries for over six months, he will lose his mind if I screw this up for him." She said with a struggled voice, obviously trying to remain as professional as possible as she tried to reason with the receptionist.

"While I appreciate your position Miss Myers, unfortunately there is nothing I can do."

A chocked cry escaped the brunette as she placed her files on the desk and rolled up her sleeve to point to her watch. Steve's eyebrows rose as he saw the scribbled writing along her forearm that matched his own. In haste he rushed around looking for a pen, cursing himself for not thinking of bringing one with him. He saw in seats a short distance from him an elderly man completing a crossword in the paper.

He rushed towards the man before interrupting him, "Pardon sir, but do you think I could borrow your pen for a moment?"

The elder gentlemen turned his gaze up towards the soldier, his eyes quickly drifting down towards his arm before a knowing smile broke on his face, "Of course son," he offered the pen towards him, "Go get her."

Steve quickly thanked the man and took the pen and scribbled two words on his arm before heading back over towards desks where his soul mate was still politely arguing with the woman behind the desk.

* * *

"Look," Evelyn gestured towards her watch, "it's not even 3pm yet, surely there is something you can do!" She begged again.

The receptionist held back an exasperated sigh but smirked before she could as she noticed the words appearing on the woman in front of her arm. Her eyes quickly darted behind the brunette, and a knowing smile took over her face.

"Miss Myers, you might want to check the time again…"

Evelyn looked queerly at the woman and her sudden change in demeanour, her eyes drifted down to her wrist. Her eyes widened in shock as she read the words and darted back up to red head behind the desk, who gave her a subtle nod behind her. Heart racing in her chest she slowly turned to look behind her and brown met sky blue and Evelyn knew her life would never be the same.

 **A/N: So I came across a Soulmate Au prompt about the writing appearing on their arms and thought my favourite artistic soldier would be a great candidate. I have never written a Marvel story before so you'll have to pardon me if some of the facts aren't correct. Please let me know what you think I'm not sure if I will leave this as a one-shot or continue**


End file.
